Fifty years since the Town refused to bend the Nea

By Gerry Buckley

Supervised Leaving Cert studies in St Finian’s prevented yours truly from witnessing the joyous scenes on the evening of June 10, 1973 as iconic local soccer figure Frank ‘Darno’ McCabe sang ‘This is my Lovely Day’, when a terrific side representing Mullingar Town returned home as heroes after a sensational win in the replayed final of the very prestigious Glen Abbey Cup.

Thankfully, I had been able to attend the match itself in St Mel’s Park, an amazing game which needed extra-time for the men in red and black to edge out the hugely regarded Dublin club St Francis on a scoreline of 3-2, with the magnificent winning goal coming from the boot of a fellow-teenager Donald Nea, himself sitting the main state exam in St Mary’s CBS that summer. However, having been a primary school classmate of the gifted footballer from Assumption Villas - a gentleman to this day - it was no surprise to me that he was capable of such brilliance in the white heat of an important cup final played in front of a huge crowd.

A full half-century on from the biggest cup win in living memory for a Mullingar side, it was a great pleasure last Thursday morning to meet up with two of the key men from that star-studded side for a trip down memory lane. Both team captain Frank Murray (known for years as the face of Murray’s landmark shop in Austin Friars St – a premises now occupied by Robert Troy TD) and Dublin native Christy Sheridan (only a matter of months on board as a Town player, having been ‘recruited’ by Frank when he came to Mullingar as C&C rep) were keen to stress the camaraderie among the nine survivors from the dozen heroes in Athlone that unforgettable afternoon (only a 12th man was allowed in those times).

Sadly, three players have gone to their eternal reward. Frank’s younger brother Vinny died in Clane on the second last day of the last century, having accumulated an enormous sporting CV during his far-too-short life - as a Westmeath senior footballer, Mullingar Town soccer player and, especially, as a rugby coach par excellence in Clongowes Wood. Indeed, the Leinster schools ‘B’ competition is now named in his honour. Well-known local businessman John Daly died in 2016, while Kevin Newman passed away in Cork in 2018.

Recalling the campaign as a whole, Frank opines: “There definitely was a feeling that this was a good side, full of exceptional players, which unfortunately broke up quickly after 1973. For example, Christy (Sheridan) had come from Dublin, Kevin (Newman) and Tony (Keegan), known far and wide as ‘Scout’, were back from clubs in Dublin, and Donald Nea was emerging as a quality player. Noel Slevin from Rhode was a smashing ‘keeper and a lovely guy, and we would not have won without him.”

After a somewhat inauspicious start, the team improved with every game to reach the final in Tolka Park. Christy, whose debut for the Town came in an earlier round against St John Bosco, recalls: “We beat Talbot Utd in the semi-final in Glenmalure Park by 1-0, and I know that the legendary Ben Hannigan was involved with them. We drew the final in Tolka on a scoreline of 2-2. There was a huge Mullingar crowd there on a Friday night. Thankfully, we didn’t freeze on the big stage, and we came from 2-0 down at half-time to get a draw. There was a great write-up the following day in the Evening Press about the quality of the game. St Francis had lots of former League of Ireland players in their team. Pete Mahon is probably their most recognizable name. They were semi-pro, but we didn’t fear them.”

So it was a case of everybody back to Athlone for the replay - Christy remembers that the return train fare from Mullingar was 35 pence! Frank still proudly retains a plethora of photos, both action shots from the game and crowd scenes, taken on the day by the late Bob Acton. Indeed, it was a fascinating exercise trying to identify hirsute supporters, many of them sadly now deceased.

Frank continues: “Their left-winger missed a sitter as the surface in St Mel’s was not great. We were down to ten men when Kevin was sent off, and we needed a last-gasp penalty from Vinny to force extra-time (2-2). I advised him to ‘pick your corner and keep your head down’. Vinny did just that, but later modestly admitted, ‘I scuffed it a bit’!” This scribe recalls it as a top-class spot-kick from a man whom I had also witnessed three months earlier doing exactly the same to eke out a rare National Football League win for the Lake County against Meath in Cusack Park.

The rest is history, with Nea conjuring up a magical winning goal, best summed up in John FitzSimons’ typically excellent match report: “Before the ball had even come to rest in the back of the net, Donald was buried beneath a sea of Mullingar players, officials and supporters.”

Frank, who had also played for Longford Town, has fond memories of playing for Mullingar Town in the greyhound track, before they moved to their current home of Dalton Park, in an era “when some players who lived near the pitch had a big dinner before the game when nutritionists had not emerged in sport”! In addition to the aforementioned ‘Darno’, both Frank and Christy recall the huge service given to the club by men no longer with us, such as Johnny Gallagher, Jimmy Matthews and Paddy Colgan.

Running the family shop prevented Frank from extending his career with his home club. Conversely, Christy played on until the late 1980s, including a spell as player/manager, winning two Counties Cup medals in the process. They are still regular golf partners, alongside another hero from 1973, Jimmy Lynch.

Indeed, the subject of golf generates laughter among the pair with Christy still unhappy with the score allocated to him when the men of 1973 met for a Silver Jubilee reunion in 1998 in conjunction with a golf outing! A 40th-reunion in the Mullingar Arts Centre is also fresh in their minds, with both men grateful to London-based builder Jim Moore, a brother of long-time Town chairman Martin, for sponsoring glass trophies to mark the event in 2013.

Tentative plans are in the pipeline for a Golden Jubilee get-together in August. Regardless of whether or not that comes to fruition, for Frank Murray and Christy Sheridan, June 10, 1973 will forever remain ‘a lovely day’.